We applaud L'Oréal, the manufacturer behind popular brands like Garnier, Maybelline, and numerous perfumes and colognes, for its commitment today to tell customers the ingredients in its product line. Customers deserve to know what ingredients we are using, because we’re worth it.

According to L'Oréal’s spokesperson, L'Oréal plans to ‘communicat[e] to a larger extent the composition of our perfumes in all our products.’ This larger commitment is an encouraging sign for consumers, who have been left in the dark about many fragrance ingredients. However, L'Oréal needs to do more. It is lagging behind the curve set by competitors Unilever and Procter & Gamble by failing to set a timeline for its plans to disclose fragrance ingredients.

L'Oréal’s announcement comes just after U.S. PIRG collected over 6,000 petition signatures this past Mother’s Day, calling on the company to disclose fragrance ingredients. Last year, U.S. PIRG and our coalition partners delivered over 150,000 petition signatures to L'Oréal USA's headquarters.

The ingredient “fragrance” or “parfum” refers to a mixture of scent chemicals and ingredients that companies are not required to disclose. Approximately 3,000 chemicals can be used to make fragrance, some of which have been linked to cancer, reproductive and respiratory problems, and allergies.

This change in company policy is a clear sign that the cosmetics industry is listening to the public, and it’s about time. Policymakers need to take note and mandate fragrance disclosure for all consumer products.

While this is a move in the right direction to increase transparency for consumers, L'Oréal should take the next step to protect public health and achieve full fragrance disclosure and remove all toxic chemicals of concern from their consumer product brands.